Approximately ninety-six percent of the observable universe is made up of matter that is in a plasma state. As such, in an effort to better understand the universe, the scientific community has dedicated a significant amount of time, energy, and resources to the generation and study of plasmas. The results of some of these efforts are discussed below.
Scientific studies have indicated that plasmas of widely different geometric scales experience similar phenomena. For example, similar types of plasma phenomena are observed in galactic clusters, galactic formations, galactic halos, black hole ergospheres, other stellar objects, and planetary atmospheres. In order to take advantage of this apparent geometric-scale-independence of plasmas, scientific devices have been manufactured that attempt to replicate the motion of the ions in large-scale plasmas (e.g., plasmas of galactic formations) on geometric scales that are containable in an earthly laboratory setting.
To date, these devices have utilized liquids (i.e., liquid sodium) or charged liquids (i.e., charged liquid sodium) to model large astrophysical plasmas. These devices have also relied upon the use of strong magnetic fields to guide ions in the liquids or charged liquids along paths that ions in a plasma would follow.
The above notwithstanding, by definition, actual plasmas are gaseous. In other words, actual plasmas do not contain matter in a liquid or charged liquid state and using ions in liquids or charged liquids to replicate the behavior of ions in a plasma may have shortcomings. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide novel devices capable of simulating the magnetohydrodynamics of large-scale plasmas in a non-liquid medium.